


Asi's Saga

by zinjadu



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-27
Updated: 2012-06-27
Packaged: 2017-11-08 16:20:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/445086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zinjadu/pseuds/zinjadu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A guess at Saix's backstory, a la the Viking Sagas.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Asi's Saga

“Asi!” Eithr called.

“Brother!” He felt a smile break out on his face, sprinting up the steps to meet him halfway. Hands clasped to forearms, each gripping down as hard as he could until neither could take any more and they drew each other into a fierce embrace.

Drawing back, Eithr regarded the brother who had left near on two years ago to raid the lowlands for their kingdom. He had changed, become a warrior over the short span of time, having left a young boy barely old enough to grow a beard and now he returned with the beginnings of one, and Eithr could not resist tugging at the sparse whiskers, though he was sure his little brother only sported whiskers out of lack of anything to remove them.

“I see you’ve decided that beards are you for, after all, little brother.”

Asi shoved Eithr away roughly, but still grinning. “My face got cold.”

“Ah, that’ll be good enough reason, brother. But come, father awaits you inside and so do many fine women, who you might please better than my old married self.” Either slung an arm about Asi’s shoulders and led him into the high-roofed hall of their fathers.

Fires roared in low pits along the middle, men lounging on benches, and their father sitting upon his throne in his furs, attended by their sisters. At their entrance the men went silent, watching them with waiting eyes. Eithr swept his arm out before him, a grand gesture, and said, “Men of Harstad! Prince Asi returns to us!”

The warriors cheered, stomped their feet and slammed their mugs repeatedly on the long table. Eithr let the welcome continue for a few moments longer and then raised his had once more for silence.

“He has returned to the profit of our Kingdom!” Eithr continued, to another chorus of cheers.

“Eithr,” Asi muttered warningly under his breath.

“Take your accolades, brother, you deserve them,” Eithr muttered back.

“Well done, my son,” their father intoned, sitting straight backed in his throne. “For this, I give you what you have earned. You may keep the men who are already in your service, and take twenty more. They are yours to command and serve with. Use them well, Asi.”

“I will, Father-King. I am honored.” Asi said, fist to heart and head bowed ever so slightly.

“Good! Now, let the celebration begin!” the king declared, and at that ruddy faced women emerged from the large double doors, trays of food carried in at shoulder level and set before the warriors. Asi watched, taking his place at his father’s left, as the men in the hall set into the food like pigs. He grimaced and picked at his own meal, unhappy to find the meat cooked through, and found ample excuse to leave before the party was over.

Retreating outside, Asi did not notice his brother follow him, but kept himself from starting when Eithr spoke.

“You look glum, brother,” he said in his most reasonable tone, the tone Asi could hate or find soothing depending on the moment. Tonight, with the waning moon overhead, he did not find it annoying, and he took a moment, breath steaming in the cold night air, with the stars winking overhead.

“I’m not.”

“But you look it. Tell me, what is on your mind? You are unhappy to have returned home, are you not?”

Asi eyed the moon a moment longer.

“Asi?”

He broke his gaze away, turning to face his brother. “I am well enough, Eithr. I am newly returned from freedom, and now must serve you and father once more. You can imagine my difficulty, brother.”

“I can.” Eithr leaned against the rail, looking up to the dark and starry sky. “You are not one to sit quietly and take orders now. I know this, and for that I am grateful, for when I am king one day, gods forefend it come too soon, I would not have anyone else at my side, watching my back.”

“And there is no place I would rather be, brother.”

Eithr laughed. “Liar. You would rather run and sail under the sky, with no walls. I see it in you, I saw it in some of my own men after I returned from my own raid. Walls are not for you, Asi. I do not think they ever have been.”

Asi stayed quiet. His brother had always been wont to talk at length, and it seemed a shame to make him stop, especially while the cold wind tugged at their heavy fur cloaks and long silver blond hair still in warrior braids.

“And so orders you find difficult, after commanding your own men and living on the long ships for so long, knowing life without walls,” Eithr finished. 

“Your orders I can abide,” Asi spoke at last.

“Then those are all you have to follow, brother mine. Until the day I may give you orders, I ask of you to take your men and secure our boarders. Someone has been testing them over the past few months, and I would like them to see them try when we are at full strength.”

Asi grinned, sharper than Elf made steel, and his eyes light up, reflecting burnt gold in the pale shadow of the moon light. “That, I would be happy to do, Brother-Prince.”

“I thought you might.” Eithr smiled back, but it lacked all the sharpness, all the hunger of his brother’s, but that was as it had always been.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

He ran, the underbrush giving way before him, his sword in one hand, hammer in the other, chasing down a small troll that his men had caught sight of while on patrol. It was a lot of effort for a little shape in the dark, but Asi had seen its bright yellow bulging eyes and the moon was now waxing, making his blood hot as it always had.

Already he outpaced his men, still holding to their horses hoping to over take the little thing somewhere along the path, but Asi knew it headed for the deep forest where others of its kind would be. Over the hills and through the vales, he ran, long strides eating up the distance between them. All too soon he overtook the troll and saw it was no troll, little more than a shadow that barely reached to his knee with bright eyes and twitching stalks on its head. Without thought, blood boiling in his ears, he swung down with his sword, cutting it but not noting that no blood came forth, and then backhanded it with his hammer, sending it flying and crashing into a tree with a sickening crunching thud.

And the night was quiet, with a near full moon over head, striking the stars out of the sky.

Unsatisfied and barely beginning to rage, he roared at the night sky, eyes glittering and spittle flying from his mouth. The roar echoed through the trees, letting his men know where he was, and they turned their horses to break for him. But he did not want his men. He did not want shadows. He wanted something to kill, something that would bleed its hot blood onto the cold ground, he wanted to run and fight and destroy and all that stood near him were trees.

And then the ache came, the ache that if he did not alleviate it would make him irritable for days. He needed something.

So he ran, still roaring and growling, letting his men know where he was, and they came soon enough with his horse, which he jumped onto and rode into the nearest town like an army of enemies waited there just for him.

His men knew what to do. Just ahead of him, they found a willing woman, shoving her into a barn as their prince leapt from his horse. He stalked into the barn, shaking off his furs, and his men closed the door after him, shooting each other relieved glances.

The woman lay on the hay, sleep tousled, but giving him a lusty smile. She hiked up her skirts and spread her legs, bucking her hips at him invitingly. Asi tore off his pants, and mounted her, grabbing her wrists and holding them above her head as he thrust into her. He didn’t know where he was or exactly what he was doing, only that release from the rage would come soon, if only the person beneath him would stop squirming and let him take his pleasure. He growled, low in his throat and stared down at the peasant woman with glinting amber eyes. She held still then. Growling with satisfaction now, he kept thrusting and then release did come.

Grunting and almost purring, he withdrew himself from her and sniffed at her hair and curled himself around her, warm in the hay. The woman did not move and eventually found troubled sleep in her prince’s embrace.

Outside it began to snow. Winter had arrived.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

More and more shadows appeared as they circled the boarders, reports of isolated farms up on the mountains being raided, and wolves growing bold. They climbed a mountain to one of those farmsteads, on the side of the mountain where the plowing was difficult, but there had been no other place. The moon was new and Asi felt clear headed as he did at only this time of the month.

Trudging through the heavy snow drifts, going where their horses refused to, they saw a broken down home, the sod roof had caved in and the goats had long ago broken free of their poles to find their luck or death in the mountains. Asi led his men through the dead and abandoned place, the men not liking the looks of the place, but Asi did not pay them any mind. He shouldered the door open to find the family that had owned this place lying on their dirt floor, dead. Stepping about them lightly, Asi bent down, brushing away the fur over the dead child’s chest to reveal a gaping hole where the boy’s heart would be. Something had reached in and ripped it out.

Teeth bared, Asi stood up and strode out of the house. “Torch it!” he commanded. “This is cursed ground.”

He watched as his orders were carried out, flames catching eventually on the dry and cold sod and in the timbers. Snow melted and ran of the side of the mountain in a river, carrying the burned up bodies with it as the sickeningly sweet smoke filled the sky.

Asi stood and felt the head of the fire, hands clenched into fists at his side.

He would catch these shadows, and tear them apart.

On the soul of the dead boy, he made his vow.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

The wolf, man high at the shoulder, bit down on his arm, hard enough to feel to the pressure but not enough to draw blood through the furs and leathers he wore. Its mad yellow-orange eyes bulged from its face, staring into Asi’s own, full of a hunger that it had never seen reflected so in one of its victims. Asi’s own blood was up.

With a scream of rage, Asi raised his hammer in his right hand and brought it down hard on the wolf’s head, sending a jolt through the beast, making it release his arm. He had kept his grip on his sword and now hammered and hacked at the beast, striking for vitals under the great, shaggy ruff, darker than a moonless night. He brought his hammer down to fend off its gaping maw, full of white sharp teeth, spittle flying off with each growl.

He drove it back, further into the cave, up against a wall and began to break its limbs. It had taken time, but they had all learned that the shadow-kind could not be killed, but they could be crippled and sent running.

And then he heard the crunch, the sound of the neck breaking and the beast downed for the time being. He wasted no time before turning to run back out the cave to rejoin the battle, drawn by the cacophony of steel to teeth, claw to chain.

As he emerged from the mouth of the cave, out of nowhere claws raked at his face. Asi jumped back, bringing his sword and hammer up in front of him, blocking whatever attack might come next. But he grinned. Here it was, the thing they had been tracking for months now. The shadow-giant.

He let it drive him back, back out from the cave and into the pale moonlight, reflecting softly off the white new fallen snow and dark fresh fallen blood. But the giant hesitated, reluctant to leave the cave. His breath steamed in the frigid air, and he waited. The thing that attacked him would come out soon. These shadow-kind could not resist a living heart, not when they could hear it beating and smell it full of blood.

And it proved true to nature.

It rushed forward, and Asi charged to meet it with a guttural roar, his sword and hammer raised to attack. But it batted away his weapons as if they were child’s toys and raked a claw down his face, right across the bridge of his nose, making him stumble and nearly fall from the force of the blow. He had barely held onto his weapons, and brought them up just in time to block another swipe from the creature’s long, yellowed claws.

The giant pushed its full weight, all twelve feet of it, down on Asi’s raised weapons, forcing him to his knees and their faces were mere inches apart. Asi could see nothing but mindless hunger in its eyes and grotesque face with its squashed nose and heavy brow. Asi grimaced, feeling his rage leave him, but he held on, digging his heels into the snow and finding purchase in the hard frozen dirt below. With the dregs of his strength, he pushed back in a might surge, knocking the giant back.

He dispensed with his weapons, throwing them to the ground and leapt upon the shadow, wrestling it to the ground. They twisted and turned and thrashed together, each trying to gain the upper hand. The beast had size on its side, but Asi had righteous rage, and he managed to twist its arm behind its back, and he kept twisting. There was a popping and he kept twisting. There was a crunching and he did not let up. And finally, with a wet tear, the arm came free of the shoulder.

The shadow-giant howled in pain, and scrambled away, faster than Asi and his tired men could follow. The wolves that could, followed it.

Asi sank down, holding the arm in his lap as the bezerker spirit fled him. Snow soaked into his clothes, but it went unnoticed. The shadow-kind’s leader would think long before it tried his kingdom once more.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Seasons turned, winter giving way to summer and summer retreating once more as winter advanced; years passed and the boarder incursions faded from memory. And now did his Father-King call him back to the hall of his fathers during the high summer, when the hunting was fine.

He did not need to see the old man die and witness his brother taking the crown. There would be no joy in it, for he had little use for politics and the life of the hall and hearth. Though perhaps with his brother on the throne, he would have less questions to answer, and less men to his name. He did not care for ones that could not keep to themselves.

Eithr waited on the steps to the hall for him, as he always did, but now his wife at his side with their newborn son in her arms. Still, they embraced as brothers, as they had always done.

“Gods thank that you are here, Asi,” Eithr said for his brother’s ears alone. Then he spoke, loud enough for his voice to carry over the green below the hall. “Welcome home Prince Asi, it is with great joy we all see you again, returned from your boarder patrols, victorious for some years now.”

“I thank you, Brother-Prince, your praise is much honored,” Asi returned formally.

Eithr embraced his brother once more and said softly, “Much has happened in the time that you were away, and I now need you here, at my side.”

“As you command, Brother-King,” Asi whispered.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

“Which is the one?” Asi asked at the feast to celebrate his brother’s crowning.

“Vigi,” Eithr told him before a cup boy could near them to fill their mead once more.

“That old snake.” Asi growled, baring his teeth in the direction of the large, red-bearded man as he ate a haunch with one hand and fondled a serving girl with the other.

“Peace, little brother.” Eithr keep his gaze off Vigi, instead regarding his wife and child, keeping an ear open for when the scald would sing something other than a raunchy jig.

“Peace? When a snake dines on your grace? I should call him out now.”

“And if you do, what then?”

“I kill him.”

Eithr sighted. “There is a time and place for his death, Asi, and it is not now. I need more against him than the sobbing confessions of a maid-no-more. If he is—” He cut off as a boy refilled their goblets. Eithr took the time to speak a few words to his wife, which sent her away to their sisters, now that the giving of gifts was over and her role fulfilled. All that was left now was to get as drunk as possible and women tended to ruin that. The boy moved on, back to Vigi, at Eithr’s direction no doubt.

“If he is plotting our deaths, Asi, I want one of his men to defect. I want him exposed and destroyed for daring to do such a thing. I will not be killed in my own hall by the likes of him.”

“I still say you let me and my men guard your doors. We are loyal to you, and only you, my King.”

Eithr turned to his brother, a pleased smile on his face. “And this I know, Asi. But I must decline. And we shall speak no more if it here, understood?”

“Yes, brother,” Asi agreed, but he did not take his eyes of the snake in his home.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Asi paced in the great hall that night, bared from protecting his brother and restless. His men were passed out, asleep on the floor of the hall with the other warriors, but he could not find sleep. Not while the snake slithered about his brother and nephew. Their family had never had a strong hold on the other lords, but they had never plotted against them before. Such things needed to stopped, put down—

A movement out the corner of his eye stopped his thoughts cold. He felt his body relax and rock forward, like a stalking animal, as he moved on silent feet to the place he had caught the flicker of movement. Near the doors to the private area of the hall, where he had lived as a child where is brother now slept, he snuck. Gritting his teeth, he barely held his ferocity in check, wanting to get a good look at the snake’s face before he cut it to ribbons. Rounding the corner, he drew his sword and hammer, but there were only shadows, stationary ones.

Still on guard in spite of appearances, Asi kept his weapons before him, held at the ready. Doors on either side of him were bared and shut. But then up ahead he spotted light from underneath a servant’s door. He nudged it open with his sword, peaking out, only to see the moonlit green. Quiet and warm.

But a crash from inside ruined any silence. Asi turned back into the hall and ran as a woman’s scream rose up over the sounds of steel on steel and cruel laughter. Asi came to the room just in time to see Eithr, in full battle armor, battling with Vigi, and by the expression on his face he clearly did not expect to find his King ready and waiting for him.

Even his brother’s wife had been made ready, standing in front of their son and heir, a maid’s armor and shield before her, repulsing her own assailants as they tried to reach the prince. Asi would have dove in, the first to do so, but his brother’s own sworn men leapt to the defense of their King and Queen. It was brutal and short, but the traitors were brought down, each one of them left alive so that he may plead his case.

And Vigi. Asi narrowed his eyes as the large man was forced to his knees before Eithr.

“You should have plotted with better men, Vigi,” Eithr told him. “Had you, you would not have found your self betrayed.”

“Which one of your whoresons did it! Which one of you got a fat purse of gold rings for his gutlessness! I’ll rip your testicles out!” Vigi raged.

Eithr cut him off with a sharp, disdainful boot heel to the face. “Shut up. You’ll have your chance to speak your peace. And then I’ll kill you.” Then he turned to address all the men. “You may decide how you will be judged, either by a jury or by combat. Ponder your choices while you enjoy the stocks.” Giving them all one last disgusted look, Eithr waved off the guards. “Take them away.”

The guards left with the prisoners in tow and the Queen took her son from the room, though still in armor. She did not wish to be out of it until the traitors were good and dead.

Asi sheathed his weapons and moved to assist his brother remove his armor. “You know Vigi will at least choose trial by combat.”

“Don’t say I have never done anything for you, brother,” Eithr replied.

Asi grinned.

And as the next day dawned, Asi’s prediction had proved true. Vigi had chosen trail by combat. Asi had not remembered ever being happier in his life. He stepped forward, in his field armor, lightweight and functional with his weapons held at ease. Vigi stepped into the circle on the green, in much the same armor, but holding a shield and a long sword in his hands.

“To the first blood!” Asi shouted.

“Ha! Are you afraid, boy? Don’t want to risk your life to my mercy, I wager. Otherwise why to first blood only?” Vigi mocked.

Asi grinned, the sharp, hungry grin his men recognized as danger. He shifted his stance, shoulders relaxed and ready, hunching forward for a quick charge, but he kept his head raised and shouted back, “Because at first blood you die!”

And then he charged, sword out to block Vigi’s own weapon, and sent his hammer crashing down into the taller man’s shield. Asi fought recklessly, charging in again and again, focused on breaking that shield. But he was so focused that he missed the point of Vigi’s sword come up and slash at his face. Just in time Asi pulled back and only the very tip of the sword cut across him, from cheek to brow, right over the other scar that graced his face, forming a blood red X.

They broke apart, near to the line of the circle on the green, Vigi panting and working to recover his breath. Asi only watched with his hungry eyes as blood trickled down his face and dripped into his mouth. His tongue shot out to catch some of it, to taste it. He laughed. And charged, his vision covered with a red veil Everything became a red haze and Asi did not stop until Vigi lay at his feet, blood and grey matter strewn about, clinging to his boots.

“And so Vigi Bjornsson is proven a traitor!” Eithr called out over the crowd. They cheered.

Eithr, smiling and laughing, descended to the green to congratulate his brother, but screaming rose from the edges of the crowd. The brothers turned to face it to see the shadow-kind Asi had gotten an arm off years ago. Now it returned, no longer lacking an arm, but in place of its shadow-flesh was bindings and metal that had been constructed by no mortal man. The giant swept men and women aside, tossing them to the dire wolves to have their hearts ripped out by sharp teeth. It was heading for them, bringing winter behind him.

Eithr did not notice, however, as he only saw his wife and son surrounded by wolves. With a scream, he ran to them, with only a sword to protect him.

“Eithr!” Asi called out after him, but it was too late. The giant saw his brother and picked him and began to play with him, arms in one hand, feet in another and pulling and pulling. Asi watched in horror as his brother was ripped in half right in front of his eyes, entrails falling to the ground. Done with playing, the giant ripped Eithr’s chest open and reached its clawed hand in rooting around for Eithr’s heart.

Asi would not let the thing eat his brother’s heart, so he charged it, sword and hammer raised, but the giant batted Asi away as if he were no more than a bug, and Asi flew through the air, crashing into the hall of his fathers.

Not letting that stop him, he hauled himself up to see the entire keep overrun with the shadow-kind. Wolves ran everywhere, playing and killing. The giant lumbered about, toying with men and women and children alike, as if they were all toys to be broken. All the while the wind drove the snow down, chilling everything to winter. And out of the center of the storm rode a woman on a dire wolf, a shadow woman, naked save for her hair streaming about her and bone claws fashioned to her wrists.

Letting out a guttural cry, Asi jumped down from the hall, running and dodging and weaving through the wolves and the piles of the heartless dead, straight to the woman. But he got no closer than a few feet before she gestured at him, and ice shot from her fingertips, slicing through him, pinning him to the ground. Still he raged, pulling one ice pick out after another and he charged again, but juked to the side at the last moment to strike her wolf in the side, between the ribs.

The wolf reared and tumbled, knocking the woman off her mount, but that did not faze her as she launched herself at him as she was pitched form the wolf’s shoulders. Her claws found his scars, his open wound, and made them deeper. She twisted the black-tipped bone in as deep as they would go, forcing as much poison in as she could. For a few moments he battered at her, knocking her head with his hammer and sinking his sword into her side, but it was no use.

He fell backward once more, hammer falling out of his hand, landing on the ground with a cold thud. The shadow witch leaned over him, watching him with the same yellow-orange eyes as the giant, and he wondered what beast the witch had fucked to have such a son.

Froth bubbled from his mouth as he felt his throat closing up, and he could barely breathe. The woman above him grinned and clawed open his chest, sending lances of pain up through him on top of the pain of the poison. And still alive, he watched, painfully reaching his hand up for his heart as the woman opened her mouth to reveal tiny, razor sharp teeth as she took a bite of his heart.

And the world went black.

And then grey.

There was diffuse light. Was he in the hall of the honored dead? Had he died fighting well enough for the gods to take him? He cracked his eyes open to see a man with silver blond hair standing above him. He reached out his hand and a felt a gloved one slip into his one bare one.

“Eithr?” he croaked.

“No,” the figure answered in a rich voice. “Xemnas.”


End file.
